Classical Scholarship

Confronting the Original Texts

The humanists dedicated themselves to reviving antiquity--that is, to
searching for, copying, and studying the works of the ancient Greeks
and Romans. Poggio Bracciolini, a long-time employee of the church,
was the most brilliant of the early fifteenth-century manuscript
hunters. He braved what he described as the squalid, neglected
libraries of Germany, Switzerland, and England in his quest for new
texts. Later in the century, curial scholars began to collate -- and
digest -- the new mass of material, and to translate vital Greek
sources, like the works of Herodotus and Thucydides. Not all of these
texts were clearly acceptable to Christians, or even consistently
moral. But Roman intellectuals prized problematical works like the
epigrams of Martial as well as moral ones like most of the dialogues
of Plato. Vatican manuscripts enable us to follow the humanists at
work, writing in the margins of their texts and then collecting and
publishing their notes as scholarly works. These glimpses of how
texts passed from script to print are among the Vatican's most
remarkable--and revealing--holdings.

In Latin,
Copied by Niccolo Perotti,
with marginalia by Perotti and Pomponio Leto,
Coat of Arms of Niccolo Perotti,
Rome,
Third quarter of the fifteenth century

Though clearly not Christian, and sometimes obscene, the Roman
epigrammatist Martial was a favorite author among curial
humanists. In the 1470s, Pomponio Leto encouraged Niccolo
Perotti, a prominent member of Cardinal Bessarion's circle, to
edit their common efforts to explain the difficult text of
Martial's "Epigrams." This manuscript was annotated by both Leto
and Perotti. In a marginal note Perotti explains a Latin word by
giving its Greek etymology, "striblo."

Latin translation by Lorenzo Valla,
Copied by Johannes Monasteriensis,
Frontispiece decorated by Andrea da Firenze,
Dedicated to Pope Pius II,
Third quarter of the fifteenth century

In addition to the rediscovery of ancient Latin texts, an
important goal of the humanists' cultural program was the
translation of ancient Greek literature into Latin. The
knowledge of Greek spread rapidly among Italian humanists of the
fifteenth century, thanks largely to the influence of Byzantine
emigres and refugees, but was always something of a luxury; Latin
remained the basic means of communication among the learned.
Hence the interest of patrons and humanists alike in making the
literature of the Greeks available to educated westerners in
Latin versions. The volume on display was the first translation
into a western language of Herodotus, "the Father of History,"
the source and model for much of classical historiography,
undertaken by the most famous Roman humanist of the mid-fifteenth
century, the brilliant and controversial Lorenzo Valla. This was
a presentation copy for Pope Pius II's nephew, Cardinal Francesco
Todeschini Piccolomini, a great Roman book-collector and a
leading patron of fine calligraphy and book illustration.

In Latin,
Presentation copy for Federigo da Montefeltro,
Marginalia by Pyrrhus Perotti,
Third quarter of the fifteenth century

Niccolo Perotti compiled a vast commentary on Martial under the
title "Cornucopia" and dedicated the work to the papal
condottiere Federigo da Montefeltro. Later the work was revised
and expanded by Perotti's son Pyrrhus, using the dedication copy
lent him by Federigo's son Guido. Pyrrhus made a number of
additions of his own on the grounds that "with commentaries of
this sort, the longer they are, the better." In this document we
can see how Perotti incorporated the etymology offered in the
earlier manuscript [human21 = Vat. lat. 6848]
into the text of
his Cornucopia. We can also see how Pyrrhus has expanded his
father's note in a marginal annotation.

The fifteenth century saw not only the revival of ancient Roman
culture in the West, but the death of the Roman--or Byzantine--
Empire in the East. Throughout the fifteenth century, cultural
debris from the wrecked empire--men, antiquities, and books--
streamed westward, where they enriched the burgeoning
civilization of Renaissance Italy. Janus Lascaris was one of
many Greek scholars who found a warm welcome and an eager
audience among Western patrons and scholars. Lorenzo de'Medici
put him in charge of acquiring in the East a collection of
manuscripts that he dreamed might one day rival the legendary
library of Alexandria. Years later, Lorenzo's grandson, Leo X,
made Lascaris professor of Greek at the University of Rome and a
prominent member of his "Neacademia" or New Academy. The book on
display is the product of Lascaris's careful Homeric scholarship:
a collection of ancient notes on the text, culled from old
manuscripts. The colophon tells us that this book was printed on
a Greek printing press located in the house of Angelo Colocci, a
high curial official who was also a wealthy patron of the
humanities.

In Latin,
Copied by the papal secretary Poggio Bracciolini,
while on leave from the Council of Constance,
1417

The first task in the humanists' revival of ancient literary
culture was the rediscovery and collection of the surviving
literary monuments of the ancient world. The most famous and
successful of these literary explorers was the papal secretary,
Poggio Bracciolini, who rediscovered texts of Quintilian,
Asconius, Valerius Flaccus, Lucretius, Silius Italicus, Ammianus
Marcellinus and ten hitherto unknown orations of Cicero. This
book, containing eight of these recovered orations, was copied by
Poggio while book-hunting in Cologne and Langres during the
summer of 1417. The colophon on fol. 49 verso may be translated,
"This oration, formerly lost owing to the fault of the times,
Poggio restored to the Latin-speaking world and brought it back
to Italy, having found it hidden in Gaul, in the woods of
Langres, and having written it in memory of Tully [Cicero] and
for the use of the learned."

Both Niccolo's and Pyrrhus's notes were incorporated in the first
printed edition of the Cornucopia. In the preface to the
Venetian edition, the editor, Ludovicus Odaxius, thanks Guido da
Montefeltro for lending him the dedication copy annotated by
Pirro for the printed version.